Curtain: Poirot's Last Case
- Episode aired Aug 25, 2014
- TV-PG
- 1h 29m
An ailing Poirot returns to Styles with Hastings nearly three decades after solving their first mystery there in order to prevent a serial killer from claiming more victims.An ailing Poirot returns to Styles with Hastings nearly three decades after solving their first mystery there in order to prevent a serial killer from claiming more victims.An ailing Poirot returns to Styles with Hastings nearly three decades after solving their first mystery there in order to prevent a serial killer from claiming more victims.
- Director
- Writers
- Stars
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
A fittingly brilliant ending to a wonderful series, 10/10
Hastings, who has just lost his wife, is asked by Poirot to meet him at Styles, the site of a previous case thirty years earlier - their first.
Styles is now a guest house. Poirot's health is failing, and he is confined to a wheelchair, due to his arthritis and bad heart. But he still has all his marbles.
He tells Hastings that there is a murderer on the premises, and he needs Hastings to be his eyes and ears.
The people there include the owners, Daisy and Colonel Toby Luttrell, a spinster, Elizabeth Cole, an aristocrat, Sir William Boyd Carrington, a birdwatcher Stephen Norton, a womanizer, Major Allerton, a chemist Dr John Franklin and his wife Barbara, her nurse, Nurse Craven, and Dr. Franklin's lab assistant, who just happens to be Hastings' estranged daughter Judith.
One of these people is a killer. But can Hastings take his attention off his daughter long enough to help Poirot find him or her?
Then the murders start. What does Poirot know? Can he solve his final case before his final curtain?
A dark mystery, but a good one, with Poirot's illness permeating the entire episode. The murder in the end is actually the McGuffin - the big story is that this is Poirot's last case. My big complaint is that Miss Lemon and Superintendent Japp were not brought back for the episode.
I know some people didn't like the turn this series took, and it's true, the seasons with Miss Lemon and Hastings were the best -- they had humor and lightness as well as mystery. But throughout all the seasons, there were always good episodes.
Will be missed.
Did you know
- TriviaThe "Curtain: Poirot's Last Case" by Dame Agatha Christie was actually written during World War II but knowing it would he the last book involving the beloved Belgian detective, Ms. Christie had it sealed in a vault along with the novel "Sleeping Murder" (the last "Miss Marple" novel) with plans to have them published at or near the end of her life when she would no longer be able to write. Four months after "Curtain" was published Dame Agatha Christie died but since the novel was generally well-received critically, she gave permission for "Sleeping Murder" to be published the following year in 1976 which she would never see.
- GoofsHastings states that he first met Poirot at Styles. In The Mysterious affair at Styles he says that he first met with Poirot in Belgium and he is in fact acquainted with Poirot before he arrives at Styles.
- Quotes
Hercule Poirot: [laying out newspaper clips] Madame Constance Etherington, tried for the poisoning of her husband, a man who was very sadistic but also addicted to the drugs, and with whom you were on terms most intimate. Norah Sharples, poisoned by her niece, Freda Clay...
Stephen Norton: I hope you're not s-suggesting I was on intimate terms with *her*.
Hercule Poirot: [lays out a photograph] You and Mademoiselle Clay taking a walk together. You see, I do my homework, Monsieur Norton. And... Matthew Litchfield. Now you visited him, did you not, on the night he was killed by his daughter Margaret.
Stephen Norton: What is your p-point, Monsieur Poirot?
Hercule Poirot: My point is this, Monsieur Norton: That in none of these murders was there any real doubt - there was one clear suspect and no other - but you, Monsieur Norton, are the one factor malevolent common to all.
Stephen Norton: [scoffs] Oh d-dear, Monsieur Poirot, is that the b-best your "l-little gray cells" can come up with?
Hercule Poirot: Your proximity to these three murders was too much of a coincidence, and I smelt, as you say, the rat! That is why I came to Styles, to observe you function, and you have not disappointed, monsieur. No, you are a man who is very clever, but not clever enough for Hercule Poirot.
Stephen Norton: So... what are you going to d-do about it?
Hercule Poirot: Execute you.
Stephen Norton: [incredulous] Execute me?
Hercule Poirot: Oui.
Stephen Norton: [mockingly looks at his watch] Then d-do get on with it. I p-promised myself an early night.
Hercule Poirot: Justice is no joking matter, monsieur. I do what I can to serve it, but if I fail, there is a justice that is higher, believe me!
Stephen Norton: [sneering] You p-pathetic, self-important little man. Murder me? There's a mortal sin if ever there was. And then what? Suicide to escape the ignominy of hanging? Ah... your G-God will give you a hell of a time. All those years of piety, up in smoke because of me.
[Poirot has an angina attack, begins gasping]
Stephen Norton: Ah ah ah, monsieur, you c-can't go yet. You don't think I'd let you d-die on me, d-d-deprive me of my ultimate t-triumph?
Hercule Poirot: [gasping for breath] Please... please...
Stephen Norton: You see, if you d-don't succeed, I'm a free man. And even if you do, it will still be a v-victory of sorts, because in the eyes of the law, I would be innocent, whereas you and your reputation, your p-precious reputation... b-blown to bits.
Hercule Poirot: [gasping] Je vous en prie!
Stephen Norton: [mockingly] "Je vous en prie"... you can see them now. "Went off his rocker. In the end, you can never trust a foreigner."
[pops the amyl phial, and Poirot inhales it]
Stephen Norton: You see how good I am to you, old man? There we go. Take your t-time, and see how it all p-pans out, shall we?
[sing-song voice]
Stephen Norton: Who will be there at the final curtain?
- ConnectionsFeatured in Gogglebox: Episode #2.9 (2013)
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Filming locations
- Shirburn Castle, Watlington, Oxfordshire, England, UK(Styles Court)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime
- 1h 29m(89 min)
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.78 : 1